Two of Mayor Adams’ top deputies who are stepping down both wrote in resignation letters to him this week that they can’t serve in city government if it doesn’t make their immigrant families “proud” — a theme they highlighted after privately voicing concern about the mayor’s willingness to participate in President Trump’s hardline immigration actions, the Daily News has learned.
First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer and Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom, who are both second-generation immigrants, used that same phrase in their Tuesday resignation letters to Adams.
Their letters, provided to The News, didn’t specify the exact date they’ll leave, but their expected departures have set off a crisis in city government. Gov. Hochul is now entertaining the possibility of removing the mayor from office amid concern that a decision by Trump’s Department of Justice to dismiss Adams’ corruption indictment came with strings attached.
The mayor has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and insists there was no quid-pro-quo with the Trump administration.
Torres-Springer, the daughter of Filipino immigrants, wrote in her letter she has over her decades in public service been committed to upholding “the values of this city” and doing “everything in my capacity to serve and protect New Yorkers.”
“Importantly, I also pledged to my family that I would only serve in ways that make them proud and are faithful to the struggles and sacrifices my parents made when they immigrated to this country to forge a better life,” she wrote to Adams.
“It is with a heavy heart but unending gratitude to you and the great men and women of this city who have made my career in public service possible that I must tender my resignation.”
In her letter, Williams-Isom, whose mother immigrated to the U.S. from Trinidad and Tobago, made a reference to her family roots after noting she will leave city government “especially proud of the steps we have taken to welcome and protect” more than 200,000 mostly Latin American migrants to the city since spring 2022.
“As the daughter of immigrants … my family has been by my side during this journey and it’s important to me that they remain proud of the way I have served,” wrote Williams-Isom, who has helped lead the Adams administration’s migrant crisis response. “It is therefore bittersweet that I must offer my resignation.”
Asked about their letters, Adams spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak referred to a statement he issued Tuesday in which he said he’s “disappointed” to see his deputies depart, but “given the current challenges, I understand their decision.”
Meera Joshi, the deputy mayor for operations who’s also a second-generation immigrant, submitted her resignation Tuesday, too, but didn’t specifically address the issue of family pride in her letter to Adams. She did write her immigrant parents came to the U.S. with the “same purpose” many of the public servants she has worked alongside with espouse.
Chauncey Parkers, the deputy mayor for public safety who also announced his departure from the administration Tuesday, hadn’t yet submitted a formal resignation letter as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Adams’ office.
Tuesday’s resignations came after sources said the four deputies privately told Adams last weekend they would step down because they’re uneasy about whether Adams can act independently of Trump given the unusual terms that the president’s Department of Justice has placed on the dismissal of the mayor’s corruption indictment.
The dismissal request asks a judge to drop the case for now, but leave the DOJ with the possibility of bringing it back as early as November.
In the interim, Trump’s DOJ leaders wrote they expect Adams to help in Trump’s hardline effort to target undocumented immigrants in New York for deportations, a caveat that both critics and allies of the mayor say makes him a “hostage” to Trump’s agenda. Ex-Interim Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, who resigned last week rather than file the dismissal motion, wrote in a searing resignation letter the situation amounted to an illegal “quid pro quo” for Adams.
Amid the deputy mayor resignations, Hochul met Tuesday with top local elected leaders to discuss the possibility of removing him. Meantime, instead of immediately dismissing Adams’ case, Federal Judge Dale Ho, who presides over his case, has ordered Trump’s DOJ officials to appear for a hearing Wednesday to explain their motion.